[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

I don't have the first clue about 'miraculous hoplite healing', really. Assuming you mean something that should be completely impossible in-game (which admittedly it sounds like you do)... I guess you should report it to the rest of the players somehow? I'm really not sure, sorry.

It's first mentioned in the southern theatre section for turn 102. One of my hoplites healed by 60 in a single turn, standing around in neutral territory. I think my fairest option is just to sit around and wait as long as it would have taken to heal naturally.

The concerning thing is how this happened. The only time I've heard anything about that sort of healing was when one of Sulla's units healed surprisingly as a result of the cheating in PBEM7. Now there's been no indication of cheating in this game, but it would be really good to discover it's a known occasional bug.

C4 seems tough, without a forest to chop for walls in an emergency (unless you can switch tiles between cities and chop the one 2W of Pythagoras?), but I think on balance I would found it anyway. It's sufficiently back in your lines, with rough terrain on the approach, that I think the Aztecs going directly for it would probably be rather overexposed.

Thanks to the great general, they'd be able to attack it with a knight standing 4 squares away. Probably only one knight at a time though, so enough force could hold it.

The forest could indeed be shifted to that city for chopping purposes. The requirement is that it be adjacent to a tile owned by the new city and not adjacent to the currently owning city centre.

[Cornflakes]

Not sure on the healing. +60 HP is consistent with earning a promotion plus the natural +10. Are you sure you didn't promote the Hoplite? I don't remember any other cases of miraculous healing reported in a PBEM. I would just add it to the list of Civ 6 quirks and not bother waiting the extra turns to heal.

(You're not standing by the Dead Sea are you? The first time I encountered Dead Sea healing I was baffled at first when receiving the extra healing from it)

[rho21]

Nope, no promotion, no dead sea. I guess you're right, no need to worry about it further and too small an advantage to bother fixing.

[rho21]

Turn 104

Score tracking
Kongo has finally captured Brussels, renaming it to Waffles in line with the food theme.
The Aztecs have finished a civic. They also did an upgrade, I'm guessing this was their last upgrade for the time being and they will now be out of professional army for a while. Gives them 8 medieval units left, I think.

Southern Theatre
The hoplites get moving again. They split up briefly to discover more of the area.

Western Theatre
I send a scouting knight a little further this time, revealing no sign of the Aztec knights at all: they're all back behind the ridge. I wonder where they will appear next. Quite possibly in Kongo. My units continue to shuffle south to provide defence along the full border.

Housekeeping
With the knights leaving the area, I decide to go ahead with settling C4. The settler is in position now for settling next turn.

Used a missionary charge in Pythagoras. As expected, that's not quite enough to convert it, but I'm hopeful it will say next turn that it converts in 4 turns. If I'm wrong about how this all works it will say more like 20 turns and I'll probably expend the final charge here. On the other hand I need my border cities converted to make defender of the faith effective, when I can afford an apostle. The other missionary will hopefully convert Gehaktbal next turn.

A view of the far south as we've not seen it recently:

[rho21]

Turn 105

Score tracking
The Aztecs gained a pop and finished a university, I think.

Southern Theatre
Found another barbarian camp in the southern tundra, this one guarded by merely a spear. I'll send the hoplites down to collect the cash.

Western Theatre
Still no sign of Aztecs near Menaechmus.

Housekeeping
Trader complete in Apollonius, which goes back to its long slow work on a settler. The trader immediately starts a route to Geneva for 6 2 and a useful road out of Apollonius. That boosts Medieval Faires.

It's time to chop the walls in Aristaeus. 77 from the chop becomes very nearly 154 of overflow, enough to finish the campus next turn.

Parallelism is spread to Gehaktbal thanks to a missionary charge. Pythagoras claims it needs 70 turns to convert. What's more, the missionary says that expending another charge won't even add any more followers. I am officially returning to thoroughly confused by the religion mechanics in this game. The missionary moves on to Menaechmus, which should be quick to convert as it's only size 4.

Castles researched. I'm going to put the overflow into Gunpowder, but I'll probably switch to pick up some sea techs before long, as I won't have the boost for Gunpowder for a bit.

Recorded History is also done, onwards to Medieval Faires, due in 7. So I need a new government for that time. What's looking hot?

• Conscription: 14/turn.
  
• Bastions: with no sign of the Aztecs attacking again, I can probably drop this now.
  
• Limes: C4 needs walls urgently, but otherwise this is wasted. I suppose I could put up medieval walls in Xenocrates.
  
• Veterancy: still only affects Xenocrates, where it's worth 3.5/turn.
  
• Feudal Contract: I want to get more crossbows building.
  
• Urban Planning: still loads of production, and nice when new cities are going up.
  
• Natural Philosophy: 8/turn, going up to 12 next turn. Shiny.
  
• Colonization: 3 cities working on settlers right now, though Euclid will be finished next turn.
  
• Caravansaries: 8/turn.
  
• Trade Confederation: 3, 3 per turn.
  

Of these, I decide I'm going to run Conscription, Limes, Natural Philosophy, Colonization and Urban Planning.
Feudal Contract is very tempting, but in practice I'd only be using it in a few cities, and they have other things they could be working on instead. Also, crossbows are stupidly expensive: 7 turns at +50% isn't enough to build one even in my top production cities. Infrastructure just seems more effective an investment.

Anyway, Xenocrates starts work on medieval walls. Should be able to chop through them in a bit to complete the armory quicker than it'll build naturally.

I found Perseus at C4. It gets going on ancient walls. It also boosts sailing, at last.

The west is in urgent need of builder charges. 2 or 3 to improve Perseus and a similar number for chopping and harvesting (to try to hit size 10) at Xenocrates. I have a 3-charge builder heading for Perseus from Aristeus the turn after next, and I think Euclid and Hippocrates may get started on builders fairly soon.

I have one other 3-charge builder, at Apollonius, that will be helping the new city in the east when it gets founded. I also have a 1-charge builder at Menaechmus that is scheduled to improve the nitre at Hippocrates when it gets claimed by the borders in a few turns.

[rho21]

Turn 106

Score tracking
Kongo has claimed Homer and gained a couple of pop.
Aztec either grew 4 pop or finished an entertainment district and grew 1 pop or something like that.

Southern Theatre
Kongo has a knight near Hong Kong, freshly built I think. Nice to see they have knights, but not sure what a fifth of their military strength is doing all the way over there.

Western Theatre
All quiet. I shuffle more units around.

Housekeeping
Borders with Kongo are now closed. I send a new open borders offer.

Parallelism arrives in Menaechmus thanks to the final charge of the northern missionary.

Aristaeus' campus is done, it gets going on the acropolis as it'll only take 6 turns. That means I'm producing 77.8, above the Aztecs for the first time in a long long while.

Settler done at Euclid; it gets started on a granary, slowly for now because I want it to grow at the same time. I'll be getting a builder part-built there soon, to wait for a suitable civic change to enable the +2 charges policy. I'll look to put out 2 or 3 builders simultaneously with that policy and Euclid builds things relatively quickly, so no need to start now.

In fact, I'm thinking I may delay the completion of the current civic so I can do two swaps quickly. I have a number of policies that are best used for only one turn at a time, and I could do with limes for a little longer than 6 turns anyway.

Here are the sites the settler has to choose between:

C10 has loads of food and pretty good production:

• Coastal, making it less defensible should the Aztecs send ships this way, but a good place for a harbour. I can two of these placed cheaply once I have the associated tech.
  
• First ring has two 4 tiles: a floodplains wheat for quick growth and a grassland hill forest for chopping then mining. There's also a regular grassland hill to be mined.
  
• Second ring has a grassland hill sheep, a grassland rice, 2 floodplains and another grassland hill.
  

C11 has the best tile in the vicinity and a few solid tiles to expand onto, but rather stalls out after that:

• 1 tile off the coast
  
• First ring has an incredible grassland hill forest truffles (223) and a grassland hill marble (211).
  
• Second ring shares the grassland hill sheep and one floodplain with C10, otherwise there's a plains hill and not much else.
  

C12 has my only source of horses but not all that many good tiles beyond that.

• Well inland
  
• First ring has plains horses (22) and a couple of plains forests.
  
• Second ring has a grassland marsh rice and a plains hills forest truffles, both very nice tiles. Nothing else though.
  

So I'm definitely going to C10 first. It will grow quickly and has loads of tiles to work once it has done.
After that,
C11 can work 5 good tiles (two of which are shared with C10) eventually (i.e. with builder labour and once it has grown and expanded borders).
C12 by comparison has only 3 tiles that will ever amount to anything. They're all very good tiles though.

[rho21]

Turn 107

Score tracking
Kongo finished a tech.

Southern Theatre
Kongo has declared war on Hong Kong. Not sure how far they'll get with just a knight, maybe more forces are on the way over. Or maybe they're just farming the archers for XP. I'd certainly rather they didn't conquer it as it's worth +5% to me. Plus a couple of bonus in Menaechmus when it's not producing units. Woo.

Western Theatre
All quiet.

Housekeeping
Granary done in Hippocrates, builder started.

C10 will be founded on T111. It will be my 9th city.

Forgot to take a screenshot this turn, but there's not much going on anyway.

[rho21]

Turn 108

Score tracking
No game score changes for anyone this turn, for the first time in 20 turns.
Aztec military has jumped up by 70 in the past couple of turns, with income dropping a fair bit.
Kongolese military has jumped by 120 in the past couple of turns, but income hasn't decreased so either those are older units or some other source of has been found to compensate.

Southern Theatre
Hoplites attack the barbarian spearman. 37v31 => 39-27 damage. 37v27 => 45-22 damage. Spearman has 16 health left and will be an easy kill next turn.

Kongo does appear to be farming XP for now at Hong Kong. They have managed to lose a 1-charge builder there too. Not that they won't be able to take it back.

Western Theatre
Still nothing moving. The ram is back next to Near Wild Heaven. I still suspect they're about to roll over Kongo, but not much I can do about it if so.

Housekeeping
Nitre mine built at Hippocrates, giving the boost for Rifling.

Gunpowder is getting close to halfway, so research is switched to Printing. Would be Sailing, but I want the option of placing a district at C10 before its price goes up. Should get one down at Perseus too, I'll have to do some district planning at both those cities.

Trade route from Menaechmus to Euclid is finished. The trader starts a new route from Menaechmus to Geneva: more and still seems more urgent than boosting the early growth of a new city. Gives a handy road along the river, too.

Xenocrates is growing faster than I'd realised. I think it'll be at 10 population in about 13 turns. This is just about quick enough to avoid wasting any culture on civil service.

[rho21]

Turn 109

Score tracking
The Aztecs finished the Colosseum. I'd been assuming they were going for this. They go up by 14.8/turn, so they presumably managed to get it to affect 7 cities. Wow, that's a lot of culture. I'm really going to have to hit boosts if I want to have even a slight chance to stay competitive.

Southern Theatre
A Hoplite cleared the camp at the cost of 19 damage. They both get to healing again.

Western Theatre
Still nothing moving.

Housekeeping
All quiet on the home front too.

Here's a shot of district planning for Perseus. Might want to add a harbour here too.

[rho21]

Turn 110

Score tracking
Aztec has grown a pop and advanced to the early renaissance with a new technology. At a guess that'll be gunpowder.

Southern Theatre
Kongo has an Ngao down by Hong Kong now too.

Western Theatre
Still nothing moving. No musket upgrade as yet.

Housekeeping
Nothing to do this turn.

Round up to follow tomorrow morning.